Thursday, August 29, 2013

Daily Encouragement (08/29/13) "The Blessing Of Good Soil"

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Thursday, August 29, 2013

Cramer's Posie Patch 8/28/13
Cramers' Posie Patch
Kraybill Church Road, Mount Joy, PA

"The Blessing Of Good Soil"

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"And God said, 'Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.' And it was so. God called the dry ground 'land,' and the gathered waters He called 'seas.' And God saw that it was good" (Genesis 1:9,10). "And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty” (Matthew 13:23).

Thank you, God, for water, soil and air,
large gifts supporting everything that lives.


Yesterday we took a tour of the "Cramer Posie Patch", a 90 acre commercial flower grower right around the bend from our house. This is the same farm where our Amish friends, Jesse and Anna Ruth used to live, before they moved back to their home farm seven years ago.

The operation sells fresh cut and dried flowers to wholesalers. Their flowers are sold all along the east coast from Washington to Boston; the kind of flowers you see at florists or sold on the streets of major cities. They grow a wide variety including celosias, dahlias, hydrangeas, tansies, lizianthus, lavendar and much, much more.

Lancaster has some of the best soil in the world. An area east of Ephrata is especially famed and has the reputation of being the "Garden Spot". Soil varies in quality but almost any soil will provide a growing medium of some type assuming other conditions such as climate and elevation are suitable for growing.

Today let us consider the blessing of soil which is one of those things we give little to no attention to! The first daily text is a record of Creation events on the Third Day. On this day the dry ground (soil) appeared followed by vegetation. Wherever you live, unless we have readers in the polar regions or extremely high elevations, you can see evidence of this divine work, even in concrete covered cities.

Soil for lawn and gardens 8/27/13
We both like working with soil. I do the yard work and Brooksyne works with the flowers and vegetables. Our neighbor is enlarging his kitchen and has a large pile of soil from digging out for the foundation. It will be removed at a cost so the contractor is pleased that I take as much as I can use. We have some low spots on our property as well as some damage to the lawn from Mollie so I have been loading our garden cart and transferring the soil for several days now when I have an opportunity. It is such good soil some of it seems like potting soil!

I wonder how often we thank God for soil? Much of what we eat is in one way or another related to this gift from God.

But on a spiritual note today Jesus contrasted four different types of soil conditions in one of His parables, "The Parable Of The Sower". Jesus taught that we are to be like the good soil that "yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty" (Matthew 13:8). Jesus explained this parable and the seed that fell on the good soil "is the man who hears the Word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty" (Matthew 13:23).

Good soil is a blessing in agriculture, home gardening, and in the heart that "hears the Word and understands it". May the Lord help us all to have hearts that are like the good soil!


Be encouraged today,


Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Praying manDaily prayer: Father, we thank You for soil, one of Your great creations from the very beginning that we simply take for granted. We want to be like the good soil mentioned in the Parable of the Sower; the one that hears the Word, absorbs its message and understands its meaning and as a result brings forth an abundance of fruit; the kind that has lasting eternal value such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. Just like water, soil and air produce good vegetation, so also the Bible, prayer, and worship produce godliness in the believer. May we faithful in doing our part. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.



More photos of the Cramers' Posie Patch

Cramer's Posie Patch 8/28/13
Several kinds of Celosia flowers (commonly referred to as Cockscomb)
Our house is only about 200 yards behind where we were standing when the photos was taken. These fields had been planted in corn for the first several years we lived here.

Cramer's Posie Patch 8/28/13
Many hydrangea flowers were massive in size.

Cramer's Posie Patch 8/28/13
Many colors of dahlias sitting in the refrigerated room prepared to be shipped.
The refrigerated area for fresh flowers is in the former dairy barn along with offices in the front.

Cramer's Posie Patch 8/28/13
Refrigerated sunflowers also preparing to be shipped.

Cramer's Posie Patch 8/28/13
Cockscomb being hung to dry in the tobacco barn basement.

Cramer's Posie Patch 8/28/13
Flowers drying in former tobacco barn.

Cramer's Posie Patch 8/28/13
Dried flower arrangements being boxed for shipping.
We watched to workers preparing the flowers.

Cramer's Posie Patch 8/28/13
Dried Flower Wreath
(These were stunning)

Crosley waiting for restoration 8/28/13
The owner of the farm has an interesting hobby, restoring old cars.
This old Crosley is obviously awaiting transformation.




Today's Suggested Music
and Supplemental Resources

"Break Thou the Bread of Life"  Video  Light and Life Hour Choir

"Speak O Lord"  Video  Kristyn Getty

"All Creatures Of Our God And King"  Video  Maranatha Hymns

Cramers' Posie Patch website is located here (google map)

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Stephen, Brooksyne and Ester Weber 04/21/13

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